


Counting Blue Cars

by chairdesklamp



Series: KSH (Kazokuseirituhen) 1997-98 [5]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Asexuality, Catholic queer people of the cloth, Catholicism, Chad's backstory, Demisexuality, M/M, Teen Pregnancy, Trans Ichigo, Trans Ichigo Kurosaki, Trans Male Character, intercultural lessons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-20 17:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18529789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chairdesklamp/pseuds/chairdesklamp
Summary: Ichigo and Chad tell Chad's guardians about the baby, and Chad learns how Ichigo works over lentil wot.





	Counting Blue Cars

**Author's Note:**

> -I know the song quote is a whole stanza this time, but that whole stanza really just fits so well. 
> 
> -Chad’s better, more complete backstory!
> 
> -Language switches are indicated by French quotes, used Japanese/English style, and saying what language it is. (Spanish/French style quotes work thus: “Just try to sleep, Ichigo said, before you decide you can’t.” Japanese and English ones work the same way as each other, though rules about punctuating around them differ. But French/Spanish throw me off enough that I can’t read novels in those languages)
> 
> -While I’m on that topic, I’m doing my best, but if you see a question end with a period, in my native language, you can do that if the question ends in “ka.” Also, if you see unusual punctuating around quotes, it probably has to do with what you’d do in Japanese. An example I know to be careful of is remembering to put periods at the end of quotes in English. I tend to read most of my novels in Japanese even today (largely murder mystery novels that I can’t even recommend because I don’t believe there are English translations) 
> 
> -I only know denomynyms for African countries in Japanese or French. I’ve been getting the bulk of my African news from an Ivorieen paper for years now. (My Asian news comes from Asahi Newspaper and NHK. NHK World is a wholly English spin-off you can get good news about East Asia from. Don’t trust EuroAmerican sources for news on Asia or Africa. I’ve caught even BBC lying to stir up “yellow peril” sentiment. If you’re curious, I do also recommend Univision, PBS, or your local independent station for American news) I will be using the French denomynyms for Africa here. A denomynym is, say, “New Yorker” for someone from New York.
> 
> -The song they’re listening to, well, if I can get KSH off the ground, KSH is DMCA-compliant and uses 90-second montages/themes, but unlike canon, where the studio gets cheap, crummy D-listers that some record label wants to sell, and the only way to do that is tie it to something with a fanbase (There are exceptions, but getting a big name to sing is expensive), this is all fan-made, anyway, so the soundtrack will be a wide purview, from Yanagi George, Blizard, Soda Stereo, Journey, The Police, Gold (French pop-rock), Tat Ming Pair, Cui Jian, Tedje & de Flikkers, Tokunaga Hideaki, Anri, Kino (The no. 1 legendary Russian rock band), Yamasita Taturou, The Moody Blues, Himuro Kyousuke, Rush, even down to Kitarou and Enya. I do believe it’ll also function very well to give new exposure to older a/o non-English artists, and people might seek out those records.
> 
> -I’m setting some stuff in the 80s and 90s for multiple characters in Koube, Oosaka, and New York, because I was in those places at those times, so I can describe them best, and make it most authentic.
> 
> -To make a reference my dad would’ve loved, Ichigo is Astro Boy. If you know why I say that after reading this, you’re cool in my book. Also, I didn’t learn Spanish until Florida (where I lived there features in Ulquiorra’s backstory, and where I lived in Northern California features as where Nel {SF} and Noitora [Oakland] grew up), and my Spanish is Japanese- and Cuban-accented. My dad’s English was both Japanese- and UK-accented. A former co-worker and neighbour’s English was Cantonese- and UK-accented. Not only does it happen, quite often, as I demonstrated, but every way of pronouncing every word has some kind of accent. Even “flat” is technically an accent.

“It must have been  
Late afternoon  
On our way  
The sun broke free of the clouds  
And we count only blue cars  
To cross  
In the street, and ask  
Many questions  
Like children often do  
We said  
Tell me all your thoughts on God”—“Counting Blue Cars,” Dishwalla, USA, 1995

  
「長すぎた冬は終わるよ、誰もが感じあえる…」

While softly headbanging to the heavy metal coming from Ichigo’s stereo, Chad turned to him, “What’s this called again?”

Ichigo, sitting up against the headboard, reading the latest Mori Hirosi novel, lowered the book and turned to Chad, who sat on the edge of the bed, leaning on his guitar.

“’Shallow Runner’ by Blizard. You said you taught yourself guitar by learning from Ozzy Osborne and Dio records, so I thought this’d be up your alley.”

“It is,” Chad smiled, “I might get a copy. Add it to my warm-up songs.”

Ichigo motioned with his chin toward the all in one stereo that sat on the shelf next to his door to the bathroom, “This is an LP. I can make up to two cassette copies of a record and one 8-track on this. No minidisc or compact disc, though.”

“This records 8-track?”

“Yeah, back when we lived in a one-room in downtown Koube, our landlady and her husband really liked us, and I’ve been into music as long as I can remember, so they got me this, probably from a recycle shop. But 8-track recorders aren’t something you see everyday, and it not only serves me well and is rare, but good people gave it to me.”

“Do you still talk to them?”

Ichigo shook his head, his eyes lowering, “No, they died a couple years ago in that earthquake. We were out with MSF at the time. It was kinda nice, having them around. Like having grandparents.”

Chad reached out and rubbed Ichigo’s arm in a gesture of comfort. Ichigo scooted closer to him.

“I saw you look kind of excited when I said I’ve been into music so long.”

Chad smiled softly. He was fairly sure his reaction had been subtle, but it warmed him to know that Ichigo was attuning to him.

“How much do you know about music?”

Ichigo seemed to pause to think before answering, counting off with his fingers, “Uh, let’s see, I can’t read Western or Kanji notation very well, but I have written short bits in graphical and chant notation, as well as a kinda clunky system I made myself…and we had a makeshift school when we were travelling and aside from a few languages, I learned to play the flute, the clarinet, and we had choir, but it’s not like we exactly had district-wide concerts…. or even school districts, really…” Ichigo scratched his head.

“You can sing, play instruments, and compose?” Chad asked hopefully.

“Yeah, yeah, I can. And write lyrics, which is basically poetry. It gets rough in tonal languages like Cantonese or Thai, but Japanese is easy—not only is it my native, it doesn’t even have to rhyme like French or Spanish.”

“How many languages…?”

“Hmm,” Ichigo pondered, “My French, Spanish, and Punjabi are a little halting, but I can at least hold a conversation in…”

He began to count on his fingers again, “Japanese—obviously, Cantonese, Thai, Khmer, Punjabi, French, and Spanish…seven languages?”

Chad blinked rapidly, floored by the new information.

« So you understand me if I speak Spanish?» He asked in Spanish.

« Yes, I understand…but it’s difficult to….speak at a normal …speed» Ichigo replied in Spanish accented, in part, Japanese-style and Caribbean-style.

«Where did you learn all these languages? »

«When my dad was with MSF, some of the wives of the…doctors, and two…husbands of female doctors, made a school for… local children. Usually, there were not the children of the doctors, but we had no other … place… to go, so I went to the school… We had some maths, and what they… could teach us. A lot was their languages. And the music, which I told you. Then, after, I was in a hospital in …New…York, and I practise with the nurses who speak Spanish, who were from Puerto Ri--»

Ichigo was cut off when Chad kissed him.

After the split second of being stunned wore off, Ichigo returned the brief kiss as the record playing in the background came to a stop, and heavy metal was replaced by the noises of birds and cars outside the open window.

« You’re happy I speak bad Spanish » Ichigo laughed.

« Yeah. Very happy. It’ll be a lot easier for me to talk more in depth with you.»

« It’s… not fluent. I seem stupid.»

Chad leant in, placing small kisses up his neck. Ichigo tilted his head to allow better access.

« You sound similar to me in Japanese. You don’t sound stupid; you’re very smart… and very alluring»

 

An hour later, the boys were satisfied, showered, dressed in their better clothes, and putting on their shoes in the back hallway.

« Is it okay if I return to Japanese? It makes me tired to speak for too long a language I am not…skilled in»

“Of course. Thank you, Ichigo.”

The two stood at the doorway, shoes on.

“I’m nervous about coming out to a priest and nun who aren’t even Japanese. I know that Europeans used an edited Christianity to sell a homophobic agenda to the rest of the world.”

Chad nodded, “So do the Gisembas. We’ll be okay. If things get dangerous, I’ll protect you and the baby.”

Ichigo closed the distance between them, his forehead resting on Chad’s chest. “Thank you. I still wish you didn’t have to fight alone. I can’t just be protected, I wanted to protect you, too. I mean, I _will_ after giving birth, but…I still feel bad about this.”

“Ichigo…”

Ichigo looked up as Chad tilted Ichigo’s chin up, “You are giving me a _family_ again. That’s invaluable.”

They left the house and began to walk toward Chad’s complex to meet the people who ran Chad’s old orphanage.

“They may not be family, but they did give me my name.”

“You didn’t have a name before?”

“No, I did. They helped me change my last name because of bullying.”

“Just your last name?”

“Yes.”

“What was it before?”

“Soto. In Spanish. Other kids would lock me out in winter.”

Ichigo took Chad’s hand and squeezed it to comfort him.

“Your name was ‘soto’ in Spanish… so your name was Yasutora Afuera?”

Chad’s hackles were about to go up, but one look at Ichigo revealed he was completely serious.

And very confused.

Chad deflated, “N-no.”

“Told you my Spanish was bad! What was it, then?”

“I meant ‘Soto’ is a name in Spanish.”

“Ohhhh.”

Chad chuckled, shaking his head, “We turn right up here.”

 

Ichigo had been to Chad’s apartment before, but this time, he followed Chad into a small, plain, grey office with papers hanging on every available surface and water stains on the ceiling.

They were invited into two wooden chairs at the front of the desk, and a woman in a habit and a man in dungarees and a white t-shirt sat in two more identical chairs behind it.

They looked between the two boys, mildly confused.

The man spoke up in a somewhat French-sounding accent, “Please forgive that I am not properly dressed. I own and manage this complex. I am Reverend Luke Gisemba.”

He offered his hand and Ichigo shook it. “Kurosaki Ichigo.”

The woman offered her hand “Sister Mary Gisemba.”

“Pleased to meet you.”

The three sat back.

“You had something important to tell us, Yasutora.”

“Yes… I’m going to become a father.”

Ichigo and Chad held hands tightly, concealed by the desk.

“Oh, what wonderful news! You are young, very young, too young to be wed, sadly, and you face a difficult path, but children are a blessing from God, and we will help you as you need it.” Mary smiled.

Luke and Mary shared a confused glance before Mary spoke again.

“Where is the mother?”

Ichigo was gripping Chad’s hand as tight as a vise clamp as he explained.

“I’m transsexual. There is no mother… _I’m_ pregnant.”

Luke and Mary blinked before coming to an almost simultaneous “Ohhh!”

Luke laughed, “It is unusual, but I am also unusual. I am asexual; I have no desire to have any companion beyond my sister, my fellow clergymen, the orphan children and tenants in my care, and the Word of our Lord, undefiled by colonial agendas.”

Mary smiled, “I became a nun, for Cote d’Ivoire is very much still under French thumb, which took our parents, who wanted true independence, and for their rule, is very hostile to women who wish for a bride. But I have come to love serving our Lord, and he has given me the power to help many who are in great need. Speaking of, Ichigo, is it?”

Ichigo shook his head out of his stunned, relieved reverie, noting that Chad had pulled his hand onto his own lap, and was rubbing it with his thumb, likely noting that Ichigo was shaking from the sudden adrenaline crash.

“Y-yes?”

“Are your parents supportive in this matter?”

« Yes, my dad is…very … helpful. My mother died last year. »

« I’m glad. And may your mother be in our Father’s embrace now. I’m also pleased that you speak French!»

« Thank you.»

« It is troublesome that you cannot be wed, for both your age and sex…» Mary crossed her arms, pondering.

« Well, my papers do not say ‘man’»

“Oh, let us speak something we all understand. Yes, Yasutora, I was just saying to Ichigo that it is concerning that you are too young to be wed.”

Ichigo looked at Chad, “I don’t know how it’d work, but I still have a female sex marker on my family registry…”

“Oh, but you are years too young to be allowed to wed,” Mary waved it off, “It is not what one would wish, but it is done. The Lord has blessed you both at this age, and I am not to question it, but to assist in His name.”

Luke raised an eyebrow, “Would you two like some red tea? It is a soothing drink from Africa, and it does not have caffeine.”

Ichigo looked aside in embarrassment, knowing that it was fully obvious how scared he’d been. “Thank you…”

Just then, a knock came at the door.

“I’ll get the tea,” Mary said to Luke as she stood.

Mary opened a file cabinet drawer, holding a pile of papers atop it from spilling over.

Luke opened the door to reveal a boy with unruly brown hair sticking up from a unsuccessfully smoothed-down crew cut. He wore paint-splattered overalls, and a frown to go with them. He looked to be about 15 or 16, and looked at Chad, lips twisting into a sneer before the cruel look was replaced by a bland one as he spoke to Luke.

When Ichigo felt Chad’s hand now tighten around his, he whispered in the best Spanish he could muster.

« You know that man?»

« Hideo. He’s three years older than us and was the one to come up with locking me outside all night. He also works and lives here.»

« I can’t fight, but I’m here, » Ichigo gripped Chad’s hand back, « I love you.»

Luke turned around, holding up a hand in front of Hideo warning him to stand down. “I’m afraid we had a problem with a recently evicted tenant, and we must discuss repairs to the unit. I apologise, but I’m afraid our time today has been cut short.”

Luke pulled Hideo in behind him as he gestured for the boys to leave.

« Do come again, Ichigo!» Mary called as they exited the office.

The two crossed the parking lot between buildings, and climbed the stairs.

Chad pulled his keys out of his pocket as they stopped at his door, but paused and turned to Ichigo.

“Is your dad expecting you?”

Ichigo shook his head, “I told him I was hoping to stay the night”

Chad leant down and kissed him before opening the door.

Chad toed off his shoes, and gestured for Ichigo to sit on the stepstool.

Ichigo did as he said, but protested, “I’m only, what, ten days in. I can still reach.”

Chad already had Ichigo’s shoeless feet on his lap, and began massaging the arch of his right foot.

“Cha-ohh…”

Ichigo leant back against the wall, closing his eyes. He brought up one hand, laying it over where he could feel the weight of the formless developing aura, his face falling contentedly slack.

Chad switched for Ichigo’s left foot, but began to wonder if Ichigo was about to fall asleep and off the stool, but another contented moan left him, and Chad continued his massage.

They hadn’t eaten since breakfast—and even that was only two onigiri per person and a can of milk coffee for Chad and bottle of caffeine-free barley tea for Ichigo, and Chad was sure if he felt like his stomach was about to cannibalise itself, Ichigo was likely about to at least develop a nasty headache.

Chad went over to a shelf that held a broken cassette boombox, a portable TV, a VCR, and some tapes, both audio and VHS.

“Relax on the sofa. I’ll put on music and make dinner.”

“Ah,” Ichigo rose and walked over to the sofa, sitting down on the hastily sewn-together cushions.

Chad opened one of the cassette ports—only the metal frame of the doors remained, and popped in a tape.

“This is a band from Mexico. Mana.”

As the stereo popped to life with a chipper tune, Ichigo leant back.

“Ow!”

Chad poked his head out from behind the refrigerator door, “Be careful of broken springs.”

“Ah…Hey, Chad?”

“Yeah?”

“Where do you sleep?”

“The couch folds out.”

“Oh. Cool music.”

“Do you like lentils?”

“Sure. What’re you making?”

“Lentil wot, an Ethiopian dish Sister Mary taught me. She worked in Addis Ababa for a while.”

“I’ll try anything once, and I already know you can cook leaps and bounds better than me.”

“You normally eat it with a special type of bread, but I’ll just serve it like stew.”

Ichigo laughed, “Look, you cook better than anyone in my house; after the dinner the other night, I wouldn’t be surprised if you made _rotten bean sprouts_ delicious.”

Chad laughed, and turned to draining his bowl of soaking lentils.

Ichigo closed his eyes, laid back into the couch—avoiding the errant spring—and rested his hand, again, over where he felt the developing aura in his womb.

A much faster song came on the stereo, with a jaunty flute, and Ichigo settled in to hear the song Chad liked.

 _“No sabes como te deseo_  
_“No sabes como te he sonyado_  
_“Si tu…”_

Loud popping and hissing came from the stove, and Ichigo saw Chad, now in a large beige apron, pour the drained, but still wet beans into the fry pan.

Chad backed up two steps, now in the living room, as the smell of spices wafted through the small apartment.

 

Bringing out one platter of the wot, and one platter of a spongy flatbread, Chad sat at the table, upon which sat nothing but glasses of iced barley tea and napkins.

“You scoop up the food with the bread, called injeera. It’s easiest to just share the serving plate. The table is small.”

“Yeah, this is a corner table, isn’t it?”

“200￥ at a recycle shop’” Chad shrugged.

“It’s fine—I don’t have to press into the table to reach over.”

Ichigo followed Chad’s example, taking some of the bread between the tips of his first two fingers and thumb of his right hand, and scooping the wot up in it and into his mouth.

“Mmm! This is _really good_!”

  
After Chad cleaned the pot, pan, and two plates, and finally got Ichigo to just relax while he did it, Chad joined him on the sofa.

Ichigo was staring at the television, which was on a variety show, volume turned off.

“Not watching this?”

Ichigo seemed to start, as if he’d not noticed Chad was there. He sat forward, and Chad slid his arm around Ichigo and pulled Ichigo on top of him.

Letting out a happy hum, Ichigo answered Chad’s question, “Furuhata Ninzaburou’s on this channel in about forty minutes. Just lost in my own head—not sure what this is.”

“I wanted to ask…”

Ichigo turned at Chad’s thoughtful tone, “Yes?”

“You dated three people, two of them boys, in rapid succession before we slept together. You _know_ it’s ours, right?”

The look in Chad’s eyes was…he was afraid.

Ichigo sighed ruefully, “I didn’t do anything with anyone else.”

Chad blinked twice and scratched his head with his free hand, “The first one was really attractive, though…”

Now was Ichigo’s turn to blink in confusion, “So…? I mean…I really like those curtains over there,” Ichigo pointed to the ivory curtains with gold embroidery that covered the only window in the unit, “looks have nothing to do with it for me.”

“Hm,” Chad said, nodding as he tried to understand this new information, “What does?”

Ichigo sighed, leaning back into Chad and his warmth, “You…you _accepted_ me. You _accept_ people. And you treat me as an equal, and as _who I am_. And you’re so great with the girls…and you _protected_ me, and…I’m always standing up for everything and everyone…but alone. And now, I have _you_ … _That_ is what did it for me. _Who you are_ is just so…magnetic to me. You _do_ look amazing, but it was who you are as a person that did it for me. It’s because you’re _you_.”

Chad was flattered, but didn’t know what to say to Ichigo without sounding shallow. He loved Ichigo as a person, and more every day, but he had also felt his body react at just _seeing_ him, since back when they were strangers…

He put both arms around Ichigo, and kissed his head.

“I love you, Ichigo.”

Ichigo reached up, behind him, and put his arms around Chad’s neck, gazing up at him, “I love you, too, Yasutora.”

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> -There is an aroace African man in here, and in KSH proper, Sungsun will be an aroace trans woman (from China, as she is coded Chinese in canon), because screw subjugation fetishists. 
> 
> -“Soto” means “outside” in Japanese, is a last name in Spanish. 
> 
> -Luke and Mary are Catholic clergy/convent. They’re queer clergy, but some of what they say comes from what I know about Catholicism because the non-Japanese side of my family was/is Italian-American. They could have been a LOT worse, but I’m trying to be a little realistic here.
> 
> -Older terminology, as was used in ’97.
> 
> -Just gonna say, people who probably don’t read, and therefore don’t write well love to substitute insults for redheads for Ichigo’s name, and furthermore, refer to Chad by his skin colour in certain ways. The former is a vestige of anti-Irish bigotry, since redhead is equated with Irish in the anglophonic world, and the latter is just blatant racism. There. Said my piece. 
> 
> -I was so tempted to reference last week’s Fresh off the Boat (air date: 8 Mar 2019), but in the framework of that episode, Chad’s way more Eddie than Horace. But if you know what I’m talking about, the apartment is about that size.
> 
> -I don’t know what happens to non-hypoglycaemics when they don’t eat for too long, but I’m in the middle of moving because I’ve been outed by a neighbour and frequently get rape and death threats as well as vandalism here, and neither management nor cops are helping. But since I don’t have a place determined, I moved most of my life into a storage unit. I rode back with the mover, and he was saying not eating for too long gives him a headache. After that, we jumped to football, Del Rio and Kaepernick and all that (former’s a pretty, pretty princess, latter was just exercising his freedom of expression), so I can’t say beyond that, but headaches is what I went with. 
> 
> -The album Chad puts on is Mana’s ?Donde Jugaran los Ninyos? From ’92, and I have a boombox in that condition, but it also needs both belts replaced, and repairing multi-component devices is a pain because everything’s behind three other things. 
> 
> -An Ethiopian friend gave me my first taste of lentil wot, and it is the best use of lentils on the planet.
> 
> -Just so you know, the reason I didn’t get this up sooner is…the basic explanation is a slimy user of an ex cost me my apartment, and I am now stuck with him living in a motel. So I’m stuck with the, also morally reprehensible (he could have whistleblown and just maybe stopped Housing Shock of ’08, and he thinks everyone paying attention to the news is bad, unless it’s about LGs, because he’s white cisgay, so it matters if it applies to him), scumbucket who ruined my life, and I don’t have a real place to live. I think that’s a decent reason. (this and all notes below it added 20 April)
> 
> -I had what I had, and the scumbucket (He’s like an anthropomorphic MacDonald’s hamburger, how they are in America. Thin, droopy (he’s a mousy coward with bad posture, sagging face, wears his clothes untucked shirt and lets his belly hang over his waistband) greasy (he’s consistently using me for money so he has money to run off and have Grinder flings with anything male, and again, now I’ve been committed to a mental institution as revenge for whistleblowing, he could have done something!) was discussing primary sexual attraction. He always chides me for not being sex-driven or noticing flirting. They show you how much of that goes over Ichigo’s head. Another thing that drew me to RP him on Tumbler. I did my research. Just like being colour-blind and thinking the walls of my old apartment were brown for many years until being told they were green, I figured the way I feel it is what everyone was on about and some people were just really shallow or whatever. Apparently, I’m more like homo-leaning-biromantic-demisexual. I told my best friend; she’d long already figured. We both still agree Ichigo’s probably not allosexual, and I’m gonna have, in KSH proper, him AND GRIMMJOW both not be, because I can, and have them figure it out later in life. Together. But I have to go back and make the majority of the cast allosexual, because not realising I wasn’t, the whole cast is like me except Kenpachi. Whoops.
> 
> -Furuhata Ninzaburou (air: 1994-98) is a GREAT show, but I’ve never seen it subbed in anything but written standard Chinese. On that note, if you can read putonghua, it’s over on Tudou or Soku. I watched mostly Asahi when I was there and young (before this came out), but in adulthood, I see appeal in some of Fuji/Kansai TV’s programming.


End file.
